Liberty defeated Stetson, 77-64, Friday at UNF Arena, to advance to the ASUN Tournament championship game.
History was made for Liberty’s Elijah Cuffee, becoming the program’s all-time winningest player, recording his 103rd career win and is the first player in program history to make a conference championship all four years he has been at Liberty.
The Flames (22-5) ended the first half on a 10-0 run, holding the Hatters (11-14) scoreless for the final 3:42 of the half to take a 34-26 lead at the break.
Stetson got the margin down to one a couple of different times in the second half, but Liberty went on an extended 27-10 run to take control.
Chris Parker led the Flames with 16 points. Darius McGhee and Chris Parker each chipped in 13.
“First, I would like to congratulate a really well-coached and hard-playing Stetson team. They always give us trouble, and I love their program and its culture, and they have some terrific young guys, including Christian Jones. If that is his (Jones) final collegiate game, what a wonderful career he had,” McKay said.
“As far as our guys, what I was proud of is we had a 10-point lead in the second half and they had the advantage at 54-50 and we could have gone in the wrong direction. When you are the No. 1 seed, I think there is an added pressure to you getting the desired outcome and it just doesn’t happen like that in college basketball, especially when you are on a neutral floor.
“The way we played from that point on I thought is a reflection of the kind of young men that are in our program.”
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